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<title>Turn the water to wine by Lilaclanterns (Shorthairedme)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23887483">Turn the water to wine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shorthairedme/pseuds/Lilaclanterns'>Lilaclanterns (Shorthairedme)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman &amp; Terry Pratchett</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, Ten Years Later, what an impressionable time childhood is</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:41:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>769</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23887483</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shorthairedme/pseuds/Lilaclanterns</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been a decade. Pepper can’t forget.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A collection of loosely connected ficlets.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Pepper/War (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>1.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>She stood on the edge of a gorge, dunes of sand stretching infinitely in every direction. One wrong move and she would plunge into oblivion. Below her, the vibrant, russet rock gleamed under the blazing sun. Precarious. Exhilarating.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>The woman blinked into existence next to her. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>She raised her hand and stumbled back in shock.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“It’s you,” she breathed. “Has it come time so soon?” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Pepper woke with a gasp, eyes wide and hands fisted in the sheets.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>2.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She was vacationing in Naples when it happened. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Passing through the marketplace, she laughed as one of the girls from her dorm dragged her towards a flower stall. As she waited for Liza to purchase a small bouquet, she took a moment to take in the sights and sounds of the city. It would be the last night before they left for the airport the next afternoon. Children weaved through the stalls, giggling and chasing one another. She heard the cheeky but firm tones of haggling and smelled the sweet scent of freshly baked pastries. Pepper continued her glance around the maze of stalls.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Their eyes met. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She jerked back, stunned, and looked away.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When she recovered, there was no one there. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>No. No, this is crazy. I must be losing it. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Except something told her she wasn’t, and she knew it. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She had never forgotten the woman’s face.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Technically, she had discovered a long time ago, the face she knew wasn’t always the woman’s face, and she wasn’t always a woman, but it was the face Pepper had stared up at all those years ago, young, defiant, and desperate to protect her friends, and she’ll be damned if it wasn’t as captivating as she remembered. Ironically, she muses, she likely already </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span>- for the thoughts she’d entertained, buried in the deepest corners of her heart, the ones that burned with unspoken desire, were far from saintly, but any need for </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>particular conversation, she hopes with an upward glance, was a long way off.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It had been over a decade since the Almost-Apocalypse, but you don’t just forget your part in Saving the World, Pepper thinks. Well, everyone else might, but they aren’t friends with Adam Young. After all, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wouldn’t that be such a shame?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It’s rather hard to be normal in any way when your best friend is the Antichrist and your other friends include a witch, a witchfinder, an angel, and a demon. Saving the world tends to bind people together like that- even if Aziraphale and Crowley aren’t technically “people”. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Pepper found it bizarre how children, herself included, just so easily accepted things. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, she just stabbed a Horseman of the Apocalypse and helped save the World? </span>
  <em>
    <span>I guess. Seems completely fine, it’s just like the games they played</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Adults never tell you how much something can affect you until you start to realize it for yourself. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>3.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She was sixteen when she took her first real swordsmanship lesson. Her mother, being the enthusiastic feminist she is, was all for it- if a bit surprised where the sudden interest came from. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>That first lesson turned into weekly sessions, and, before she knew it, weeks became months and months became years.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She slashed and she parried and thrust and she learned to withstand the clash of steel against steel </span>
  <em>
    <span>again again again </span>
  </em>
  <span>until her teeth ached and her arms felt like leaden rods.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>And every time Pepper picked up her blade, she tried really, very hard not to think about wild, crimson tresses and pale lips curled into a smirk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <span>She failed </span>
  <em>
    <span>again and again and again.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>4.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The weight of the sword in her hands, how she kept her gaze as fierce as she could while her heart pounded in her ears like beating drums of fear and adrenaline she knew the woman would recognize, she recalled her fury and desperation </span>
  <em>
    <span>How dare they threaten the Them? </span>
  </em>
  <span>and the look in the woman’s eyes she was too young to place. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Reckless abandon. Chaos unleashed. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The gleam of silver.</span>
</p><p> </p><p><em><span>I am War. I cannot be anything other than what I am. It is my duty, my essence, my purpose, and all I know. Without it I cease to exist</span></em> <em><span>and without me this world would not be as it is. </span></em></p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pepper may have stopped her in the name of peace, but in those last, fleeting moments, Pepper looked into her eyes and knew that the woman could feel it all. She saw the deep rage within her, the smoking embers her eleven year old self couldn’t yet comprehend.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I see. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I will be waiting, little girl. </span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hi yes im still thinking about how hot Mireille Enos was as war</p></blockquote></div></div>
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